Tundra's Multi-Standard Serial RapidIO Switch has PCI Bridging and FPGA Interface

The Tundra Tsi620 significantly lowers 3G baseband processing costs by directly connecting a switched cluster of RapidIO-enabled DSPs to low cost PCI-enabled microprocessors, in many cases leveraging investment in existing software solutions. Further cost savings are realized by taking advantage of the Tsi620’s unique RapidIO port for FPGA interconnect. This port allows baseband designers to select cost competitive FPGAs without integrated SerDes.

“Baseband cards can be implemented with significant cost savings with the Tsi620, while at the same time benefiting from the latest signal processing capacity of today’s high performance multi-core DSPs,” said Daniel Hoste, Chief Executive Officer, Tundra Semiconductor. “This new RapidIO Switch allows customers to both increase their baseband performance and significantly reduce overall system cost,” continued Hoste.

“The Tsi620 RapidIO Switch leverages proven interoperability between Tundra switches and TI’s wireless infrastructure optimized TMS320TCI6482 and TMS320TCI6487 DSPs,” said Ramesh Kumar, Marketing Director for the Wireless Baseband Group at Texas Instruments. “TI’s base station customers will benefit from the ability to design cost-efficient baseband cards by leveraging lower cost FPGA and host processors.”

“RapidIO continues to gain momentum in DSP applications where FPGAs are used to significantly increase performance by off-loading computational intensive functions from DSPs,” said Steve Mensor, Senior Director, IP and Technology Product Marketing at Altera. “The Tsi620 allows users to build DSP switch applications with Altera’s latest Cyclone III and Stratix III FPGA products and with Altera’s HardCopy structured ASICs if they are designing for volume.”

“The Tsi620 extends the use of RapidIO endpoint clusters into heterogeneous systems that use FPGAs and PCI-based processors. Tundra’s innovative solution will again expand the RapidIO ecosystem and offers customers an opportunity to take advantage of the features and benefits of RapidIO in cost-sensitive but high performance applications,” said Tom Cox, Executive Director, RapidIO Trade Association.